ABSTRACT
Religious festivals as exemplified by Dīwālī, the Pūr a Kumbha Melā and Durgā Pūjā. The way as yoga or integral union. The yoga of bhakti: its Vedic roots. Levels of bhakti.
Let us now examine the way Hindus celebrate religious festivals in order to gain further insight into how space and time co-ordinate in worship. We will briefly consider three different kinds of festivals, exemplified respectively by: (i) Dīwālī, which is annual and virtually pan-Indian; (ii) the Pūr a Kumbha Melā, which is occasional and localised but the cynosure of enormous interest; and (iii) the yearly Durgā Pūjā, special to its heartland, Bengal.
